


Petty Theft and Pretty Girls

by redjenny



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, mentions of worldstate dependent character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 01:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4371695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redjenny/pseuds/redjenny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marian Hawke steals flowers from Merrill's garden on a regular basis. Merrill finally learns why. Modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Petty Theft and Pretty Girls

**Author's Note:**

> First fanfiction I've published in years, but hopefully not too terrible. Based on a tumblr prompt.

“Oh—are you the one that’s been taking my flowers, then?”

Marian Hawke was not exactly an upstanding citizen. As the adage goes, rules are meant to be broken. But even so, she felt a _little_ bit guilty when the person she frequently stole flowers from finally caught her.

There was nothing personal about it, really. Her weird little hippie community just happened to all live in a house she passed by often, and they had a really large, well-kept garden. Surely, Hawke had said to herself each time, they wouldn’t miss a few flowers here and there. And she even had a good reason for taking them! She was pretty certain that she was only starting to regret this now because the girl who apparently planted and maintained all these flowers was _really cute._

Hawke was definitely staring. The other girl had probably already realized that she was staring rather than answering yet she _kept doing it._

“I guess it might be your first time, actually,” the girl started babbling—probably to fill the silence,” In that case, sorry for the assumption! But then I’d have to wonder who else was doing it…maybe a different person every time? But that seems kind of silly, doesn’t it? Maybe I should just shut up...”

Hawke snapped out of the near-trance she was in and replied with a smirk, “No, please, by all means. Keep going as long as you’d like.”

“Oh, well…I guess I don’t really have much to say about it, anyway. I mean, I could think a lot about the other kinds of people that might want my flowers, if you wanted to hear that. Somehow I don’t think you would, though.”

“No, no…sounds _fascinating_ ,” Hawke didn’t know what she was even doing at this point. She could’ve run for it and avoided all this awkwardness by now. But no, she just _had_ to stand here, flirting like a fool.

“You really—oh, that’s sarcasm, isn’t it? Well, either way, I _do_ want to know why you’re taking them.” Hawke didn’t understand why she was being so…friendly about the whole thing. Shouldn’t she be more annoyed? At most she seemed…a little exasperated. 

“They’re for…a girl.”

“Is she pretty?”

“Oh, yes...very.” How did she go from flirting to _this?_

The girl looked like she was taking a moment to consider that.

“I want to see. The girl, I mean. I want to make sure she’s pretty enough to deserve all the flowers you’ve taken! If you’ve been the one taking them all along, that is…but, if she is, I won’t really mind losing them as much.”

Hawke should’ve finally just taken the flowers and run, but she couldn’t say no to the smile on that girl’s face.

“Alright. Just…follow me then, I guess,” Hawke sighed and got up, turned towards her destination as the girl immediately came to stand at her side.

“Good! I’m Merrill, by the way. Would it’ve been more polite to mention that earlier?”

This girl really was something else.

“Hawke. Marian Hawke,” she replied, ignoring the inquiry.

 ——

Merrill seemed to take it upon herself to make sure there was no awkward silence as they walked. She informed Hawke of how much she loved her garden, how much work she put into it, how she helped grow lot of the food her “clan”(apparently, that was what they called themselves—Hawke didn’t want to be invasive and ask if she was related to any of them) ate—but the flowers were _all_ hers. She also admitted to having been very angry the first few times she noticed her flowers being stolen, but eventually had come to wonder _why_ someone would want to take them so consistently and curiosity beat out anything else she was feeling.

Luckily Hawke had provided an answer she seemed to have found charming instead of irritating. Unfortunately, any attempts Hawke made to _really_ explain the situation to her just turned into Merrill saying she wanted to be _surprised_ by the girl they were meeting.

Which brought them to where they were now—standing at the entrance of a graveyard. _That_ seemed to make Merrill stop babbling as Hawke led her to the right grave.

“My sister,” Hawke whispered, trying and failing to keep any emotional from slipping into her voice.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, you could’ve just—“

“I know.”

“That must’ve been awful. I’m so, so sorry…and I’m sorry I intruded like this. Um, also—I really won’t mind if you take flowers for her in the future."

“Oh, but you didn’t even get to see if she was pretty enough…” Hawke let out a bitter laugh. Merrill looked and sounded so _guilty_ , but she couldn't help it. It wasn't really directed at Merrill, anyway. It was directed at herself for causing this awkward mess in the first place.

“Well! You’re a very pretty girl, so I’m sure your sister must’ve been, too!...That might’ve been the wrong thing to say. I’m just making a huge fool of myself...and you must think I'm really insensitive. Sorry.”

Hawke let out a sigh, but smiled fondly as she set all but one of the flowers over Bethany's grave. She handed the last one to Merrill.

“My sister was beautiful, but you know…I don’t think she’d mind if I spared a flower for another pretty girl.”

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was “Sometimes I steal flowers from your garden on my way to the cemetery, but today you’ve caught me and have demanded to come with me to make sure the “girl is pretty enough to warrant flower theft” and I’m trying to figure out how to break it to you that we’re on our way to a graveyard” AU. :')


End file.
